Grandma needs baby photos.
November 28, 2010 5:06 AM Subscribe
Trying to buy a digital photo frame for my mother-in-law. Question has been asked before on AskMe but this is the 2010 version and of course my special snowflake details are included within.
Grandma wants photos of baby. We have baby photos but we're tired of printing them and mailing, and she is pretty much afraid of anything resembling technology. She has a laptop we gave her, but any time she uses it turns into me talking her through it over the phone. She has a digital camera and is fine using that, but refuses to ever actually upload images to the computer to clear the cards unless I do it for her, again requiring a phone call and frustration on both ends. The in-laws are snowbirds, winters in the south with a spotty wireless and summers up north with no internet at all. Wifi in their winter house should be improved soon but no idea when.
We'd like to send her a digital photo frame for Christmas. Ideally, we'd pre-load it with photos and then find some way of sending her more semi-regularly. We have a Flickr pro account and that's where I post most photos of baby online. We don't use any other dedicated photo services, and although we are on Facebook I am not willing to upload more than a few low-resolution shots to that site given their insane policy issues on privacy. We are perfectly willing to ship her storage media several times a year to get new photos her way if that's the only easy way to do it.
So the crux of the question: What will work? Should we skip the wifi-enabled ones and just send her a preloaded SD card once in a while? Since she never clears memory cards, having new SD cards would be helpful to her - and she could get prints of the photos she really likes - but then we're potentially stuck buying new cards constantly. The wifi updates for the frame would be really neat, but it would only work half the year and we are definitely not going to sign up for more services (Kodak, etc.) just to get photos to her. I am also not thrilled about the idea of trying to talk her through setting up a wifi connection on the frame when I have no idea what the interface looks like while she is working - it's hard enough talking her through anything on her laptop when I can't see the screen, and know exactly what she should be seeing on her end.
Main concerns are finding a frame that is (1) easy to use, (2) not too big to place in a small living space, (3) POSSIBLY wifi enabled if that doesn't complicate things too much, but (4) definitely able to handle local storage. If wifi enabled, it also needs to work with Flickr. And of course there are issues with combining the two - some reviews say that frames will do either local or online but won't mix them automatically. We're overwhelmed with the options and are looking for help from people who have tried various brands. Does the frame we are looking for exist?
Grandma wants photos of baby. We have baby photos but we're tired of printing them and mailing, and she is pretty much afraid of anything resembling technology. She has a laptop we gave her, but any time she uses it turns into me talking her through it over the phone. She has a digital camera and is fine using that, but refuses to ever actually upload images to the computer to clear the cards unless I do it for her, again requiring a phone call and frustration on both ends. The in-laws are snowbirds, winters in the south with a spotty wireless and summers up north with no internet at all. Wifi in their winter house should be improved soon but no idea when.
We'd like to send her a digital photo frame for Christmas. Ideally, we'd pre-load it with photos and then find some way of sending her more semi-regularly. We have a Flickr pro account and that's where I post most photos of baby online. We don't use any other dedicated photo services, and although we are on Facebook I am not willing to upload more than a few low-resolution shots to that site given their insane policy issues on privacy. We are perfectly willing to ship her storage media several times a year to get new photos her way if that's the only easy way to do it.
So the crux of the question: What will work? Should we skip the wifi-enabled ones and just send her a preloaded SD card once in a while? Since she never clears memory cards, having new SD cards would be helpful to her - and she could get prints of the photos she really likes - but then we're potentially stuck buying new cards constantly. The wifi updates for the frame would be really neat, but it would only work half the year and we are definitely not going to sign up for more services (Kodak, etc.) just to get photos to her. I am also not thrilled about the idea of trying to talk her through setting up a wifi connection on the frame when I have no idea what the interface looks like while she is working - it's hard enough talking her through anything on her laptop when I can't see the screen, and know exactly what she should be seeing on her end.
Main concerns are finding a frame that is (1) easy to use, (2) not too big to place in a small living space, (3) POSSIBLY wifi enabled if that doesn't complicate things too much, but (4) definitely able to handle local storage. If wifi enabled, it also needs to work with Flickr. And of course there are issues with combining the two - some reviews say that frames will do either local or online but won't mix them automatically. We're overwhelmed with the options and are looking for help from people who have tried various brands. Does the frame we are looking for exist?
I'm thinking that just about any frame would work, but instead of constantly buying new cards, what if you had two? Whenever you send her one with new pictures added, she sends the other one back.
posted by tamitang at 5:21 AM on November 28, 2010
posted by tamitang at 5:21 AM on November 28, 2010
If cost is not an issue, there might also be the mega-gold-plated-uber-bling option of a 3G iPad.
posted by chengjih at 6:11 AM on November 28, 2010
posted by chengjih at 6:11 AM on November 28, 2010
Best answer: We've done this with three members of our family. For each of them, this gift was a HUGE knock-it-out-of-the-park winner on the gift spectrum.
We went with local storage only and on visits/through mail swap out the cards every so often. Keep a folder with the baby pictures, buy a bunch of cheap SD cards (the lower end cards are cheaper than a value meal lunch), add new cute ones to that folder and drag all of them on the new card. That way her collection grows and she keeps the old photos too.
On my last trip to Dad's I noticed that he's loading his own now, so no more card swaps for him.
I never brought up the wi-fi subject with any of our recipients. None of our 3 have wi-fi enabled frames in the first place, and at least one would be weirded out by "push" technology. That saved us time and money.
Plus, I have a strict policy of not dragging my family members into tech that they don't understand or appreciate. If Grandma wants prints and was that afraid of her laptop, I'd just send her a pretty photo album once a year -- something she can take out and show her friends.
posted by ladygypsy at 6:56 AM on November 28, 2010
We went with local storage only and on visits/through mail swap out the cards every so often. Keep a folder with the baby pictures, buy a bunch of cheap SD cards (the lower end cards are cheaper than a value meal lunch), add new cute ones to that folder and drag all of them on the new card. That way her collection grows and she keeps the old photos too.
On my last trip to Dad's I noticed that he's loading his own now, so no more card swaps for him.
I never brought up the wi-fi subject with any of our recipients. None of our 3 have wi-fi enabled frames in the first place, and at least one would be weirded out by "push" technology. That saved us time and money.
Plus, I have a strict policy of not dragging my family members into tech that they don't understand or appreciate. If Grandma wants prints and was that afraid of her laptop, I'd just send her a pretty photo album once a year -- something she can take out and show her friends.
posted by ladygypsy at 6:56 AM on November 28, 2010
Best answer: We did this with a SD card in the mail. New SD cards are less than $1 on Amazon.
posted by k8t at 7:40 AM on November 28, 2010
posted by k8t at 7:40 AM on November 28, 2010
I've been looking at this frame for my parents. It allows you set up an email address and then you can just email photos and whenever it's connected to wifi, it will download the new photos. I think it does require a Kodak account to set up as all the photos you email will be added to that account, but if your MIL can figure out how to use their site, it would also be an easy way for her to order prints.
posted by logic vs love at 9:13 AM on November 28, 2010
posted by logic vs love at 9:13 AM on November 28, 2010
We got my parents a Kodak Easy share with wifi access two christmases ago. It turns on every morning at 9, downloads any new pictures I've put on their flickr account wirelessly, and turns off at 10. They never have to touch it. We don't use the email address or the easy share program at all. I did all the set up at our house, so all they had to do was plug it in - I think I could even tell it the name of their wireless network from our computer, but I don't remember. It also takes cards, so you could have that option if the set up gets too wonky. It's amazing, and the best part is they never have to touch it. If you can handle the cost of the wifi option, and she has wifi, get it. it's awesome.
posted by dpx.mfx at 2:52 PM on November 28, 2010
posted by dpx.mfx at 2:52 PM on November 28, 2010
Best answer: Buy her a Sony DPFD85B Digital Picture Frame (£60 here in the UK, so probably $60 in the US) and two 512MB SD cards (or 1GB, depending on what deal you can get).
Open the product, configure it (remembering to turn off the Sony logo, set the pictures to fit the screen, display pictures randomly and turn off between midnight and 9am) and use your favourite picture editor to export the photos onto the SD card no bigger than 800x480. Because you're resizing, you'll be able to fit hundreds of pictures on such a small card. Insert it into the frame, package it up and send it to her.
When she receives it, then all she needs to do is unpack, plug in and away she goes. When you want to update the photos, post her the updated photos on a new SD for her to swap out with the one already in the frame. She can then post (or give) back the unused one for you to update and post back to her again in the future.
I picked the Sony one because it wasn't too expensive, looked good, wasn't filled with useless features, turned off automatically at night, had good build quality and displayed pictures clearly.
posted by mr_silver at 3:09 AM on November 29, 2010
Open the product, configure it (remembering to turn off the Sony logo, set the pictures to fit the screen, display pictures randomly and turn off between midnight and 9am) and use your favourite picture editor to export the photos onto the SD card no bigger than 800x480. Because you're resizing, you'll be able to fit hundreds of pictures on such a small card. Insert it into the frame, package it up and send it to her.
When she receives it, then all she needs to do is unpack, plug in and away she goes. When you want to update the photos, post her the updated photos on a new SD for her to swap out with the one already in the frame. She can then post (or give) back the unused one for you to update and post back to her again in the future.
I picked the Sony one because it wasn't too expensive, looked good, wasn't filled with useless features, turned off automatically at night, had good build quality and displayed pictures clearly.
posted by mr_silver at 3:09 AM on November 29, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks all! I'm pretty much in agreement that the wifi would be cool but would not be worth the effort. We ended up going with a 10 inch Sony frame because of the size (father-in-law doesn't have the best eyesight these days), the LED backlight (super bright and low power consumption), and it was on sale. We have preloaded the internal memory with a small set of photos. An SD card will be shipped to her with the frame, containing more photos.
We figure that since the SD card will work in both the frame, her photo printer and her camera, she can print the photos she wants permanent copies of (so we're sending less photos but at a higher resolution), and we'll leave the reconfiguration for when they return north for the summer and I can do hands-on stuff with them.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:46 AM on November 29, 2010
We figure that since the SD card will work in both the frame, her photo printer and her camera, she can print the photos she wants permanent copies of (so we're sending less photos but at a higher resolution), and we'll leave the reconfiguration for when they return north for the summer and I can do hands-on stuff with them.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:46 AM on November 29, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Talking her through wifi setup sounds like a nightmare.
With that in mind, practically every frame on the market supports USB and/or SD and it's just a matter of style, price, etc.
posted by randomkeystrike at 5:18 AM on November 28, 2010